Abstract: This collection documents the life of John E. Teamer (1941-1994), a gay African American public high school teacher and community
activist. It includes personal correspondence; ephemera; videotapes; photographs of friends, family and events that date back
to the 1940s; and personalia.

Language of Material: English

Access

Collection is open for research with the exception of one folder of medical records in Carton 3 and mailing lists and other
records holding the names, addresses, and/or phone numbers of individuals which are restricted for 20 years. Please contact
the Managing Archivist for more information.
Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

John Eric Teamer was born April 26, 1941 in Asheville, North Carolina to John Anderson Teamer and Leontine Franklin Teamer.
He died of AIDS on December 21, 1994. Teamer graduated from Stephens-Lee High School in Ashville, got his B.A. in Biology
from Blackburn College in 1963 and an M.A. in Education from Atlanta University in 1974. In between college and graduate school,
he served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines from 1963 to 1965. Teamer taught high school for over 26 years -- from 1971
to 1992 at Woodrow Wilson High and the Ida B. Wells Continuation School in San Francisco. A tireless civil rights and AIDS
activist, Teamer was a founding member of Black and White Men Together and served as co-chair of the National Association
of Black and White Men Together. He was first board chair of the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention and a board member
of the Black Coalition on AIDS. Teamer as a founding board member of the Gay-Lesbian Tennis Association and a founding board
member and acting director of Kapuna West Inner City Child-Family AIDS Network.

Scope and Content of Collection

This collection documents the life of John E. Teamer (1941-1994), a gay African American public high school teacher and community
activist who was born in Asheville, North Carolina and lived most of his adult life in San Francisco. The collection is especially
rich in documentation of Teamer’s involvement in the National Association of Black and White Men Together (NABWMT), and Teamer’s
life as a gay man in San Francisco from the 1970s to the 1990s. There are organizational records, correspondence, event flyers
and meeting minutes from various organizations, including NABWMT, Black and White Men Together (BWMT), Community United Against
Violence (CUAV), the Bay Area Chapter of Black Lesbians and Gays and Kapuna West Inner City Child-Family AIDS Network (KWIC-FAN).
The collection also includes personal correspondence; ephemera; videotapes; photographs of friends, family and events that
date back to the 1940s; and personalia, including high school and college yearbooks dating from the 1950s and 1960s. The high
school yearbooks from the late 1950s document Teamer's secondary education in the then segregated schools of Asheville. Of
particular interest are photographs, correspondence and ephemera from Teamer’s time in the Peace Corps in the Philippines,
circa 1963-1966. A very small portion of the collection documents the political activities of Teamer's partner of 12 years,
Michael C. Foo (1944-2004). Carton 1 contains records related to organizations Teamer was involved with; Carton 2 contains
photographs; and Carton 3 contains personalia. The photographs in the collection are unsorted but many, especially those from
his Peace Corps days, are labeled. Researchers interested in accessing the photographs should contact the Managing Archivist.
This collection was formerly the John E. Teamer and Michael Foo papers.